Sponsoring Program: Bastrop State Park
New Volunteers must sign up for the Tree Inventory Training Event on October 12.
You cannot sign up for Tree Inventory shifts until you go to the Tree Inventory Training Event.
Participants will learn how to collect data for our Forest Inventory as part of our Forest Management plan. There will be a classroom portion with background, instructions, tree ID, and how the information is used. Then we will go into the field and do a few plots to familiarize everyone with the process.
Volunteer Tree Inventory events will consist of a crew of 3 to 4 volunteers at a time for 4 hours shifts.
Training Day - What to Expect:
8am to 12pm: Power point instruction/lecture inside the Meeting Room at Bastrop State Park.
12pm to 2:30pm: Field training. Be prepared to be outdoors hiking through areas of the forest that have thick vegetation with no trails.
At the training volunteers will learn the history of forest management in the park and the Lost Pines. They'll learn what tree inventory is, why it's important, what we learn from the data and exactly how to do the inventory and gather that data. We will go out in the field, learn to navigate to inventory areas with GPS and conduct an hour or two of tree inventories so that everyone gets good hands on training. After this training volunteers should be able to conduct Tree Inventories with out a staff member present. After the training volunteers are expected to sign up for 2 or more inventory events a month.
Bring: Sack lunch, snacks, bottled water, note pad and writing utensil, sun and bug protection. Wear weather appropriate clothing, close toed shoes, pants, long sleeve recommended.
*Recommended for able bodied persons as inventory takes place in thick vegetation, off trails, and can require miles of hiking through very uneven terrain with lots of tripping hazards.
Field Duties Include: Conditions during field training and during all other tree inventory volunteer events: Outdoors, off trail, through forest vegetation/thick vegetation, uneven terrain, hazardous plants in some areas. Volunteers need to be able to hike 4 to 5 miles off trail, hiking over downed tree logs, through thick brush, up hills, possibly down ravines, watching for stump holes/vines/hazardous vegetation and other hazards.
Required Qualifications: Must have gone to the in person Tree Inventory Training on Saturday, 1/27/24, 4/13/24 or go to the Tree Inventory Training on October 12 before signing up for shifts.
Time Comitment: Minimum of signing up for two shifts a month. One shift is 4 hours long.
These tree inventories will be going on all year. Time slots every Saturday and Sunday morning/afternoons. Shifts will be 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon. If we have enough interest for weekday inventory then we will open up time slots then as well.
This opportunity has multiple shifts, see schedule tab to sign up.
